Until Proven Guilty
by Ms. Videl Son
Summary: TwoShot. She slammed the barred door behind him and locked it securely. "In the meantime, I'm going to go get a court order forcing you to reveal your identity. See ya later!" GhVi Week 4.0, GhVi.
1. Chapter 1 Innocence

**Title:** Until Proven Guilty  
**Rating:** PG ( K+ ) – For very mild swearing and life being just plain unfair.  
**Disclaimer:** In the criminal justice system, the People are represented by two separate yet equally important individuals. Videl, who investigates crime, and Saiyaman, who brings criminals to justice. These are their stories.  
**Spoilers:** Uh...Gohan is Saiyaman?

**Summary:** TwoShot. She slammed the barred door behind him and locked it securely. "In the meantime, I'm going to go get a court order forcing you to reveal your identity. See ya later!" GhVi Week 4.0, GhVi.

Theme – Innocence (Day 2)

GhVi Week 4.0 is brought to you by SweetestIrony, OrangeStarLove and Videl-Gohan. If you're interested in participating (or just want to see the entries of others), please visit us on DeviantArt.

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**Part One: **Innocence

"B-But I'm innocent!" Saiyaman blustered, his cheeks flaring red beneath his helmet. As he turned around to face his accuser directly, his chains jangled mockingly.

Samesaid accuser nudged him roughly and he turned back around. "Tell it to the judge," she suggested, her face betraying an unholy amount of glee at his predicament. "_After_ I unmask you."

"B-But Videl-san – !"

"Don't 'but Videl-san' me, _Mister_ Saiyaman!" the female crime fighter snapped as a guard opened up the nearest jail cell in anticipation of his new prisoner. The hinges squeaked fiercely as the door was pried away from its stationary position. "You were caught jaywalking and now you'll have to face the consequences."

Saiyaman wholeheartedly protested, "I was flying! How can I jay_walk_ if I wasn't even on the ground?"

"I guess that's something to take up with your lawyer, isn't it? Might make a good defense," Videl suggested, grinning as she shoved him inside his new home. She slammed the barred door behind him and locked it securely. "In the meantime, I'm going to go get a court order forcing you to reveal your identity. See ya later!"

Videl spun on her heel and skipped a few steps down the hallway, whistling a jaunty tune as she went. Her pigtails bounced behind her with every cheerful step.

"Just great...," the superhero mused regretfully, tearing his gaze away from the end of the corridor just as Videl disappeared from sight. Knowing well and good that there was no way the judge would refuse her request (even if she weren't the famous offspring of the Man Who Saved the World), he was completely screwed.

He should have seen this coming from miles, leagues, even solar systems away; Videl was getting frustrated with the chase and was looking for a quick solution. Arresting her fellow crime fighter on a ridiculous charge that would probably never make its way into a real court was a brilliant way to get the information she wanted. All she had to do was throw him in a cell and then ask a judge to force him to reveal his identity as part of the normal booking process. Within an hour, Videl's suspicions about Son Gohan would be confirmed...

...Unless, of course, he could get away.

"Hold out your hands," the guard ordered without even pretending to be polite about it. What a nice fellow.

As Saiyaman allowed the guard to remove his handcuffs through a small opening in the bars, he began plotting his escape.

000

"Oooh, Mr. Saiyaman!" Videl called cheerfully, waving around a folded slip of paper victoriously. "I've got my court or – "

All of the teenaged crime fighter's taunts died at the back of her throat as she came to a stop in front of her prisoner's cell. He was..._gone_! And so was the barred window that used to be on the opposite wall. In its place was a large hole and a pile of dusty rubble.

"_GUARD_!" Videl screeched, whirling around just as he came lumbering up behind her. "What the hell happened?"

"Uhh...," the guard hedged, scratching at his bald spot beneath his hat. The dark rings beneath his eyes were especially obvious under the harsh glare of the fluorescent lighting that flooded the cell block. "He escaped?"

With the court order crumpling in her clenched fist, she growled at him. "Gee, do you really think so? Because I think that maybe he's hiding under that pile of rubble over there. What _happened_? How did he escape?"

"Uhh..."

"Perfect," Videl grumbled, turning away from the guard to observe the scene again. Half of the wall had been massacred when that masked buffoon had made a dash for freedom and his guard couldn't even be bothered to notice! "My tax dollars at work."

"Eh...?"

"Just open the door," Videl commanded testily. The guard whipped out his keys as bidden and allowed her entrance to the partially demolished prison.

The teenage detective perused the cell with a keen eye once inside. She made a valiant effort not to touch anything (lest it become contaminated by her presence) and instead relied on her deductive reasoning skills to pick up clues with her eyes. In the corner, something shiny caught her attention.

Videl carefully made her way toward the object, stepping over chunks of rubble in her path, and knelt down beside it when she'd gotten close enough. With the hem of her shirt, she picked up a piece of drywall that was obscuring it and moved it out of the way. Underneath she found a food tray with an uneaten helping of...something on it.

"When did you serve dinner?" Videl queried the guard, still squinting at the meal. Though she was still confident about being able to track down her nemesis, she doubted if she would ever be able to identify what they were attempting to feed him.

The guard scratched awkwardly at his bald spot again before replying, "Uhhh...'bout half an hour ago, I guess. 'Round 7:30."

"Which means," Videl began, rubbing her chin. "That he escaped within the last half hour. He couldn't possibly have gotten far. Do me a favor and call the judge; I need an arrest warrant for an escaped prisoner."

"R-Right..."

Just as the guard had scampered out of visual contact, something else grabbed hold of Videl's attention. There was something stuck under the food tray...it looked like a scrap of red cloth.

Gently, Videl tugged it free of its confinement and held it up for observation. It was...a note. Written in gravy.

"_SORRY_," it said in gigantic block letters. "_COULDN'T STAY. SEE YOU AT SCHOOL. SM._"

"'See you at school'?" Videl repeated aloud, scrutinizing the new clue with her chilled blue eyes. There had obviously been an attempt at disguising the handwriting (even forensic experts couldn't differentiate samples written in block lettering), which suggested a clever mind capable of covering its tracks, but the last sentence was damning. She finally had confirmation from the suspect himself that they were classmates.

Videl grinned at the hastily penned letter. Saiyaman might have slipped through her fingers this night, but tomorrow was another day.

"I called the judge," the guard informed her, seeming to suddenly materialize at the cell door. His pudgy face was dripping with sweat and he was wheezing; clearly, he didn't get enough exercise from eating donuts and watching soaps. "He...He said that he's issued a bench warrant for Saiyaman's arrest."

"Thanks," replied Videl, standing at her full meager height. The scrap of cloth with the personal message from Saiyaman was already tucked safely in her pocket where no one could see it. "I'm on it."

After discharging the capsule hooked to her key chain, there was a loud poof, a shrill whine and a soft thump and her jetcopter materialized inside the tiny cell. She got behind the controls and exited the same way as Saiyaman; through the crumbling hole in the wall.

"See you at school," she muttered to herself, smirking at the dark skyline while her engines roared. Now that he was guilty of something worse than a traffic violation, Videl had leverage. Leverage that she would use to the best of her cunning abilities. "Gohan-kun."

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**Author's Notes:** Moving on to Part Two...

_**. ( . Ms Videl Son . ) .**_

– _Who's your daddy? GohanVidel_


	2. Chapter 2  Deviance

**Title:** Until Proven Guilty  
**Rating:** PG ( K+ ) – For very mild swearing and life being just plain unfair.  
**Disclaimer:** In the criminal justice system, the People are represented by two separate yet equally important individuals. Videl, who investigates crime, and Saiyaman, who brings criminals to justice. These are their stories.  
**Spoilers:** Uh...Gohan is Saiyaman?

**Summary:** TwoShot. She slammed the barred door behind him and locked it securely. "In the meantime, I'm going to go get a court order forcing you to reveal your identity. See ya later!" GhVi Week 4.0, GhVi.

Theme – Deviance (Day 2)

GhVi Week 4.0 is brought to you by SweetestIrony, OrangeStarLove and Videl-Gohan. If you're interested in participating (or just want to see the entries of others), please visit us on DeviantArt.

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**Part Two: **Deviance

Gohan trudged upstairs with his head hanging low. His mother's screeching followed him into the depths of the house, threatening every punishment short of death and dismemberment if he should _ever_ dare to be late for dinner again. With every enraged scream the demi-Saiyan teen was glad that he hadn't told ChiChi where he'd been for the past three hours; there was no telling what she'd do to him if she ever found out that he'd been in jail during the family meal.

"And don't think that I won't take away your superhero privileges!" his mother called after him just as he was about to close his bedroom door. "I'm no super genius like Bulma, but I can sure destroy that blasted watch of yours! So you just watch yourself, mister!"

Gohan dropped his schoolbag by his desk just before slumping into the matching chair. What a day.

First, he'd been late for school because a pack of early bird thieves had decided to rob a doughnut shop. Not only had he earned himself a detention for failing to make it to first period before the late bell, but the stingy shop owner hadn't offered him even one sugary-sweet pastry as a parting thank you. Cheapskate.

Then, after he'd finally gotten to class, he realized that he'd left his schoolbag at the crime scene. Since he couldn't possibly turn his assignments in late (what would his mother say?), he'd been forced to ask for a bathroom pass to go retrieve it. Somehow, the professor had seen through his ruse and refused to let him out of class so he'd had to stick it out until class was over.

Gohan had been so sure that his luck was turning around after school when Videl's communicator watch had interrupted their group discussion about how "cute" Saiyaman was supposed to be under his helmet (Erasa said he was dreamy, Videl claimed to have no opinion and Sharpener said it didn't matter because his clothes were ugly). Not only was it unnecessary to ask for a hall pass, but he'd been spared from answering Erasa's query about his opinion on their embarrassing subject.

When he'd finally shown up on the scene, it was clear that Murphey's Law was still in effect. Gohan had expected to foil a bank robbery, rescue a hijacked plane or at least catch a couple of kids shoplifting from the local mall, but he encountered none of that. Instead, he found himself mixed up in a domestic dispute between a dour old lady and her philandering husband. Apparently, the wife had caught her man picking up chicks at a nearby retirement home and was quite...unhappy about it.

After about thirty minutes of being hit over the head with a cane repeatedly (he would_ never_ get between two squabbling elders again), Videl had convinced the woman to cease and desist with the violence and listen to reason. A quarter of an hour later and the problem was solved; dentures were removed and a bottle full of little blue pills was pulled from seemingly nowhere. After that, his crime fighting partner had insisted that it was time to leave.

Just when Gohan had erroneously assumed that his day couldn't possibly get any worse, he was proven wrong. As they were leaving the elderly couple's apartment building, the demi-Saiyan superhero found himself in yet another unfortunate predicament; arrested and thrown in jail.

The details were still a little fuzzy and illogical to him, but Gohan recalled bidding Videl farewell on the sidewalk, taking to the air and heading towards home. Less than ten minutes later, his tenacious classmate was chasing him down in her jetcopter and, once he'd landed on the roof of a nearby building, reading him his rights.

"You have the right to remain silent," she had informed him, grinning maniacally as she slapped on her personal set of handcuffs. Interestingly enough, they had her initials on them. "If you give up that right, anything you say can and _will_ be used against you in a court of law. I might even let something slip during a press conference, but we'll see how that goes."

When Gohan had made the mistake of protesting his innocence, Videl had called him a "deviant" and a "menace to society" and cited him for some sort of traffic violation. According to her, new laws had been passed to regulate air transportation and, the way she saw it, that included flying pedestrians, too.

The rest of his evening consisted of being dragged to the police station, thrown into a cell and then finally breaking out of jail. He was now an escaped felon on the run from the judicial system and could never show his – well, _Saiyman_'s – face in Satan City again.

What a day.

"_GOHAN_!"

The demi-Saiyan teen raised his head and turned it towards his half-closed bedroom door. "What is it, Squirt?" he replied.

Moments later, an eerily familiar face peeked around the edge of the door. "You've got a phone call. It's a _giiiiirl_!"

"A girl?" Gohan repeated, crossing the room to retrieve the phone proffered by his visitor.

Goten relinquished his offering with a naughty giggle. "I told her you were in the bathroom doing number two. She said she could wait for you to finish."

Gohan could feel his cheeks heating up in the cool darkness of his room. "_Goten_!"

The youngest demi-Saiyan dashed out of harm's way just as his elder brother slammed the door. His wild laughter could be heard all the way down the hall.

"Hello?" Gohan said, speaking into the phone now.

"_Gohan-kun?_" a soft voice on the other end replied. Whoever it was, she sounded pretty.

Coughing until the squeak in his voice was gone, Gohan said, "Yes, this is he. Who's this?"

"_It's Videl. Do you have a minute?_"

Well, he'd been right about the voice belonging to a pretty girl, at least. On the other hand, he was now utterly terrified. "Y-Yeah...sure. What's up?"

"_I was wondering...do you know what the penalty is for escaping from jail?_"

"N-No! Why would I know that, Videl-san? Ha ha ha..." Gohan winced at his own awkward laugh. Smooth.

"_Well, depending on the severity of the original offense, a person could get up to seven years in jail. Unless, of course, there are crimes committed during the escape like, oh...damage to government property. That could carry a sentence of ten to fifteen years instead, not to mention a hefty fine._"

Gohan gulped hard before attempting another reply. "R-Really?"

"_Oh, yeah, they take that kind of thing __**very**__ seriously these days._"

"Th-That's very...um...interesting, Videl-san." Gohan could feel the perspiration dripping down his forehead now. With the back of his hand, he wiped it off and rubbed the moisture on his shirt. "Was there...ahem, did you need anything else?"

"_Nope, that should do it_," Videl said gleefully. He could practically see her smiling at him from the other end of the line. "_I'll __**see you at school**__ tomorrow. Bye!_"

There was a soft click and the line went dead. Gohan slowly lowered the phone from his face, an aggravated dial tone screeching at him to hang up as he did so. Somehow, he got the feeling that tomorrow was going to be even worse than today.

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**Author's Notes: **Okay, that's the end. Y'all are just lucky that I bothered writing anything at all, so don't expect more XD Lolz...

_**. ( . Ms Videl Son . ) .**_

– Who's your daddy? GohanVidel


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